3 ms·

Part of it probably has to do with lungs originating as gills. Passage of water across the gills was what was crucial for optimal oxygen intake, and taking wate

Part of it probably has to do with lungs originating as gills. Passage of water across the gills was what was crucial for optimal oxygen intake, and taking water in through the mouth facilitates that for fish. Getting food stuck was probably less of an issue because if you had proper flow of water it’d just get flushed right back out. And the incremental nature of evolution favors the adaptation of similar but suboptimal structures over the development of entirely new structures and especially of new topologies (changes in what passages are connected to one another or pass all the way through the body).

jelliclesfarm 8y ago
Thank you. One more Q: Do fish and birds have gag reflexes as we do? Is gag reflex just a mammalian thing.
- cimmanom 8y ago
  That I don’t know. Most birds have the ability to regurgitate food for their young, but that’s not the same thing as a gag reflex. Maybe google or Wikipedia have more info?
  - jelliclesfarm 8y ago
    There seems to be whole slew of reflexes. That’s what made me wonder..if we were to redesign human anatomy, what changes would we have to make? Eating and breathing through the same passageway seems to be an unfortunate and fatal bad design. Ditto with reproduction. The digestive system is pretty neat as is the neurological and brain circuitry(as much as we understand it) I just don’t get when we eat and breathe through the same tube..and give birth so close to where we poop. Seems like bad design.
    - cimmanom 8y ago
      What does “bad design” mean in the context of a system that wasn’t designed? Evolution is a process that involves tiny random changes stabilizing at or near local maxima. Where you end up is largely about where you started.
      - jelliclesfarm 8y ago
        You are right in a way. It’s just that sometimes I feel that if evolution can be tinkered with..or improved upon, I could come up with a better design. Purely theoretical, of course

jelliclesfarm 8y ago

Thank you. One more Q: Do fish and birds have gag reflexes as we do? Is gag reflex just a mammalian thing.

cimmanom 8y ago
That I don’t know. Most birds have the ability to regurgitate food for their young, but that’s not the same thing as a gag reflex. Maybe google or Wikipedia have more info?
- jelliclesfarm 8y ago
  There seems to be whole slew of reflexes. That’s what made me wonder..if we were to redesign human anatomy, what changes would we have to make? Eating and breathing through the same passageway seems to be an unfortunate and fatal bad design. Ditto with reproduction. The digestive system is pretty neat as is the neurological and brain circuitry(as much as we understand it) I just don’t get when we eat and breathe through the same tube..and give birth so close to where we poop. Seems like bad design.
  - cimmanom 8y ago
    What does “bad design” mean in the context of a system that wasn’t designed? Evolution is a process that involves tiny random changes stabilizing at or near local maxima. Where you end up is largely about where you started.
    - jelliclesfarm 8y ago
      You are right in a way. It’s just that sometimes I feel that if evolution can be tinkered with..or improved upon, I could come up with a better design. Purely theoretical, of course